About 100 yards into the woods behind the Congregational Church of Rockland, officials discovered a family living in a tent. Rockland police and the Department of Health and Human Services stepped in when it was discovered there were three children under the age of 12 living there as well.

Police asked the family to leave the premises last week because they were camped out on private property. When Stephan Dodge and Troy Weaver refused to leave, police said they were arrested and charged with criminal trespassing. The pair was sentenced to two days in jail.

“What we are trying to do here is we’re trying to protect the children and by arresting the parents and getting a safety plan in place with the Department of Health and Human Services, it allows DHHS to have a lot more leverage in what they can now do in placing the children and keeping them safe,” Detective Sgt. Chris Young with Rockland police said. The children have been placed with other family members.

“It’s a family in crisis,” Seth Jones said. Jones is the pastor at the Congregational Church of Rockland. He said he knows the family and that Weaver recently lost his job. “We prefer that people not live on our property, particularly without our knowledge. Also it seems to me there must be some way the community can come together to get some support for them so they don’t have to do this anymore,” he said.

Rockland police estimate around 100 people are currently homeless in the town. In the past, police said there was nearly 20 people camped out in the woods behind the church.

Tuesday, both law enforcement and Jones went to check the campsite. They said the tent was still there but that no one was inside the tent at that time.

Lawyers for Boston Marathon bomber Dzkokhar Tsarnaev rested their case in his federal death penalty trial Tuesday after presenting a brief case aimed at showing his late older brother was the mastermind of the 2013 terror attack.